Trying Linux

[kevinturcotte]

I'd like to try playing with Linux on my 2nd hard drive, but I'm not really sure where to start, or even if it will work for me. Hoping somebody can help me get started.

My Hardware:
Pentium 4 (32 bit) 3.6 Ghz with Hyper Threading
2 GBs DDR RAM
500 GB SATA Hard Drive (With Vista Ultimate installed, but I'd still like to be able to access file on it if possible)
160 GB SATA Drive (Would be used for Linux)
Samsung DVD Burner
Flash Card Reader (Connects directly to the motherboard)
ATI Radeon X700 Pro video card (PCI-E)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro sound card

Programs that are used regularly:
Firefox
Windows Media Player 11
Gmail Notifier
Something to replace Windows Solitaire and Chess

I do NOT use any Media Center features, so no replacement is necessary there.

[bidger]

Maybe you could try Wubi (http://wubi-installer.org/).

BTW, Firefox is the default browser on most Linux distros. Pity you're not using the MCE features of Vista. I have a MCE 2005 and I love it.

[kevinturcotte]

That's what my HR20s are for.
Wubi still requires windows though, doesn't it? What I'm hoping will happen is I'll really like Linux, and completely drop Windows.

[bidger]

Well, you can run Wubi through Windows and get an idea of how you take to the distro before you go through a full install.

[flexoffset]

One big thing with Linux is to ensure the distribution you choose has support for your motherboard, graphics card, dvd burner, etc.
With all but a few hardware manufacturers, the drivers have to be reverse engineered.

It can be especially time consuming getting some video cards to work.
Once you get through all that, it's a blast.

I personally use Fedora Core 6.

[kevinturcotte]

I found ATI Linux drivers, but Sound Blaster doesn't seem to have any Linux drivers.

[Kevin Dupuy]

I've heard of people running into problems with ATI video cards, but you'll probably be OK. All your other hardware should run fine under most versions of Linux.

Software-wise, Linux seems great for you. Firefox is the default browser on most versions, so all your settings and themes and extentions hould work the same. And there is most definatly a Solitare and chess replacement.

As far as versions go, many like Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/), it has the plus of having a live CD installer, so you can use it before you install; my favorite is openSUSE 10.2 (http://www.opensuse.org) w/ the GNOME desktop (Which is installed by default anyway). With that setup, SUSE would run fine, both are extremely easy to use. SUSE looks better in my opinion, unless you like brown... Ubuntu is friendlier to older hardware, but with newer stuff, SUSE puts many cool features out there.

Since you're using Vista, if you like some of Vista's new features, SUSE has them (Desktop Search, Desktop Effects, a Trash can :) (Ubuntu has that too, of course:D )

Overall, good luck, and I hope you have a great experience with Linux.

[paulfife]

I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 on a second partition along side Windows XP. I have an ATI card (a little older than yours), but I think yours should work OK. I would try a distribution (like Ubuntu) that comes with a live CD so you can boot into the OS straight off the CD to get a chance to experiment and check hardware compatibility without having to wait for a full installation. My experience with Ubuntu has been excellent - I booted off the CD and all the important stuff worked: my DSL connection, my video card displayed the full native resolution used by my 20" LCD, etc.

I would fully recommend Ubuntu for someone new to Linux since the installer is pretty simple and straightforward. There aren't a ton of package installation questions like some other distros - all the basic stuff is on the single CD install. For extra software you just download/install with the built in tool once you're already going (this is extremely easy too). Basically you can get up and running really quickly and if you decide you want to try a different distro or decide Linux is not for you at all then you're not out too much time.

[flexoffset]

Check out ALSA for your Sound Blaster drivers.
They probably have something that will work with it.

http://www.alsa-project.org/
and specifically for Sound Blaster cards...
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/index.php?vendor=vendor-Creative_Labs#matrix

The different flavors of Linux can be overwhelming:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/

[southtexan]

I dumped Fedora Core to go to Ubuntu recently and it works very well. I have an ATI X350 PCI-E and Ubuntu works fine. Although I had to edit the config files as it didn't get my monitor's H and V freq range right. The live CD and the small download size of the distribution is nice plus.

[HIPAR]

Why are there so many dialects of Linux? It's more confusing than trying to understand the dialects of VISTA. But, I guess Geeks can handle it.

I've always thought that those running Linux on a PC do it to make an Anti-Microsoft statement. In the business world, you waste a lot of time 'working around' the non Microsoft users.

--- CHAS

[paulfife]

Why are there so many dialects of Linux? It's more confusing than trying to understand the dialects of VISTA. But, I guess Geeks can handle it.

I've always thought that those running Linux on a PC do it to make an Anti-Microsoft statement. In the business world, you waste a lot of time 'working around' the non Microsoft users.

--- CHAS

The main reason there are so many dialects of Linux is that Linux isn't controlled by one entity. There are lots of different forces at work, from businesses to home tinkerers. Each distribution has its own focus and a target audience. Some may be aimed at server environments and would include the software needed for that environment. Some are focused on home/desktop use and include only what those people would need, including trying to make it easy to use. You don't have to understand all of what is available to be a user though - it's easy enough to find out what your needs are and see what is available to fit them.

There are lots of reasons to choose Linux, and it's not always about making an anti-Microsoft statement. Personally I enjoy a system that I can tinker with and experiment. Linux is much more enjoyable for that and reminds me more of earlier days in personal computing's history when it seemed like there was a lot more variety to choose from, rather than one-size-fits-all.

[leww37334]

Ubuntu is having a lot of success, but I still like Fedora 7, especially since they have added native support for NTFS partitions.

Just remember in Fedora 7, hard drives are labeled sda for drive 0, sdb for drive 1, sda1 is drive 0, partition 1.

just leave some unpartitioned space on your 160 GB drive. Fedora will walk you through the install.

a good website for installation answers:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f7/en_US/


I would also just buy the CD's or DVD from a place like linux central (rather than try to download and burn an ISO)


http://linuxcentral.com/_v3/

I don't get over to this part of the forum very often, so if you have a question just PM me.

PS I dual boot Fedora 7 and xp, I just finished getting the Fedora OS to share music with my HR-20 Directv HD DVR, by using Twonky.